Shot Allocation Strategies in Debugging Quantum Circuits

Abstract:Debugging quantum programs remains challenging due to the nature of quantum measurement. As quantum algorithms and systems scale, it is increasingly crucial to develop rigorous debugging and verification approaches. Statistical assertion-based debugging validates quantum program behavior through repeated circuit execution and statistical hypothesis testing, but existing frameworks treat shot count as a fixed input parameter, leaving the problem of optimal shot allocation across multiple mid-circuit assertions unexplored. To improve debugging efficiency by making better use of given shot counts, this paper proposes and evaluates four shot allocation strategies within the QDB quantum debugger implemented within the CUDA-Q framework. These allocation approaches: equal split, static weight allocation, adaptive entropy routing, and sequential retirement, use statistical approaches to test whether qubits have expected state characteristics at different points in execution. We evaluate these allocation strategies on different circuits, under both noise-free and depolarizing noise conditions. We show how adaptive strategies use shots efficiently by concentrating them on assertions with high uncertainty. This substantially reduces total shot usage while maintaining comparable debugging confidence.

arXiv:2610.27335 [quant-ph]

(or arXiv:2610.27335v1 [quant-ph] for this version)

https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2610.27335 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration)

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